Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/254

196 of their own; they began with lances, which were soon taken from them by an old man, apparently a chief, but they were allowed to continue their battle, which they did like Englishmen with their fists for some time, after which all of them retired behind a little hill, so that our people did not see the event of the combat.

6th. The Indians, as yesterday, were tame. Their habitations were certainly at a distance, as they had no houses, but slept under the bushes. The bay where we now are may be a place to which parties of them often resort for the sake of shell-fish, which are here very plentiful; indeed, wherever we went, on hills or in valleys, in woods or plains, we continually met with vast heaps of shells, often many waggon-loads together, some appearing to be very old. Wherever these were it is more than probable that parties of Indians had at some time or other taken up their residence, as our Indians had made such a pile about them. The country in general was very barren, but the tops of the hills were covered with a very large fern, the roots of which they had got together in large quantities, as they said, to carry away with them. We did not see any kind of cultivation.

8th. We botanised with our usual good success, which could not be doubted in a country so totally new. In the evening we went to our friends the Indians that we might see the method in which they slept: it was, as they had told us, on the bare ground, without more shelter than a few trees over their heads. The women and children were placed innermost, or farthest from the sea; the men lay in a kind of semicircle round them, and on the trees close by were ranged their arms, in order, so no doubt they were afraid of an attack from some enemy not far off. They do not acknowledge any superior king, as did all those whom we had before seen, so possibly these are a set of outlaws from Teratu's kingdom. Their having no cultivation or houses makes it clear at least either that it is so or that this is not their real habitation; they say, however, that they have houses and a fort somewhere at a distance, but do not say that even there there is any cultivation.